Chapter 188

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 188
Chapter Title: Breaking the Shell
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‘My only heir. The one and only successor to my throne.’

These were the words Leo III always used when he doted on Alfonso.

It was also the source of Queen Marguerite's infinite pride.

Though she lacked the king's affection, she held the sorrowful pride that her son was the sole heir to the throne, and she, the mother of the future king.

And under the wings of those two, Alfonso had spent his entire life believing he would be the next monarch of Etruscan, honing himself for that purpose.

He could endure the difficult education, the challenging exams, and the agonizing daily routines.

He was to be king, and a man who would be king had to learn more, understand more, and endure more than others.

He considered all the prohibitions and the suffocatingly numerous rules as things he had to bear.

Suppressing his feelings for Ariadne at first had been part of that.

Because the heir to the throne could not simply follow his heart.

For the revival of the dynasty and the prosperity of the nation, he had to unite with the daughter of a monarch, one of an appropriate bloodline who brought a fitting dowry. But…

‘Cesare de Carlo. Leo III’s firstborn son, Alfonso de Carlo’s older brother.’

*Crack.*

It felt as if an eggshell had shattered.

Alfonso was no longer unique. He was not the only one responsible for the throne.

He could be replaced at any moment, and the duties and privileges he thought were his by birthright were not his alone.

A core component of the person known as Alfonso de Carlo had just crumbled.

Seeing Prince Alfonso frozen like a statue, an innocent and cruel smile spread across Grand Duchess Lariesa’s lips.

It was the childish egoism of one satisfied with having influenced another, without a thought for the consequences.

What Leo III had acknowledged for Cesare was not the status of a ‘prince,’ but that of a ‘prince’s cousin.’

Cesare de Carlo—despite his new surname—was merely the second in line to the throne, following Prince Alfonso.

But Lariesa, wanting to wound Alfonso, intentionally hid that part.

Alfonso had mistreated her, scorned her, and made her cry in San Carlo and Taranto. Now it was his turn to suffer.

She would pay him back for everything. As much as she had hurt, no, even more, with interest.

“My father said so. Now that your brother has a claim to the throne, you’ve become useless!”

This was something Lariesa had learned by secretly peeking at a notebook in Grand Duke Eudes’s office.

However, Grand Duke Eudes’s words were a note to himself, meaning that with the emergence of a second-in-line heir, Duke Cesare, Philip IV's plan to assassinate Prince Alfonso, marry Princess Bianca, and swallow the Kingdom of Etruscan whole according to the legitimate line of succession had been disrupted.

But Lariesa was not wise enough to grasp such a deep meaning, and even if she had, she would have said the same thing.

She wanted to make Alfonso submit.

Alfonso, deprived of all context, also understood Lariesa’s words as Grand Duke Eudes’s assessment that ‘Prince Alfonso de Carlo is no longer of use to King Leo III of the Kingdom of Etruscan.’

His chest ached as if his heart had been pierced.

But instead of crying out or openly showing his agony, he remained as still as a weathered statue. No, he *couldn’t* move.

If not for the occasional blink of his eyelids and the moist eyes beneath them, the utter lack of vitality would have made it difficult to tell if Alfonso was even human.

Lariesa stood before such a Prince Alfonso and delivered the final blow.

“I’m the only one who can save you.”

She looked directly at Alfonso and said,

“Marry me.”

A profound silence descended upon the room for a long while.

For Lariesa, who had made the proposal of a lifetime, this silence was harder to bear than death.

“Alfonso…?”

she called his name in a faint voice.

It was a boldness she could only show because she was certain of her absolute superiority.

It was the first time Lariesa had called Alfonso by name, without his title.

But despite this power dynamic, Alfonso did not answer.

Growing desperate, Lariesa now clung to him, practically begging.

“His Majesty Philip IV plans to keep you locked up here and kill you!”

*Why won’t this man readily take my hand, even in a situation like this?*

“Marry me. If you marry me, you can move to the Grand Duke’s residence! Or, if you don’t want to stay in the capital, Montpellier, you can come down to the Valois territory with me. I’ll get you out of this prison. If you take my hand, you can!”

Alfonso remained silent, but Lariesa bravely extended her thorny, dry hand toward him.

A white, gaunt hand and wrist were thrust before Alfonso’s eyes.

He remembered seeing something similar just before leaving for Gallico.

‘…Ariadne.’

His one and only love, who had been painfully thin.

Lariesa’s papery skin revealed long knuckles like bamboo joints.

Alfonso could almost superimpose Ariadne’s hand, her slender wrist, over it.

Like an olive branch, supple and seemingly fragile, yet never bending…

Lariesa’s sharp voice cut through Alfonso’s thoughts.

“Is it because of that cardinal’s bastard you left behind in Etruscan?”

She was right. Alfonso’s pupils widened, his thoughts laid bare.

Seizing upon his agitation, Lariesa’s suspicion hardened into certainty. She glared at Alfonso with eyes full of rage.

“What are you doing, with your only lifeline right in front of you? All for some lowly bastard who could have come from anywhere…!”

“…Do not speak so carelessly.”

“!”

Grand Duchess Lariesa’s eyes wavered. This was Prince Alfonso, who hadn’t even interrupted her when he heard that Leo III had abandoned him.

But now, the moment she mentioned the cardinal’s illegitimate daughter, he couldn't bear it. Lariesa’s shock was fleeting.

*I won’t let this go.* Her lips twisted into a spiteful smile as she spat out words like daggers.

“You pitiful man.”

The words that would wound Prince Alfonso the most now left her lips.

“It wasn’t just the kings of both nations, your father and your cousin, who betrayed you. How foolish…”

“!”

Staring directly into Alfonso’s trembling eyes, Lariesa hammered in each and every word.

A cruel pleasure shot up her spine and pounded in her brain.

“Aren’t you curious how your half-brother managed to be recognized by His Majesty the King?”

Alfonso could only stare at Lariesa, frozen like a statue, but she knew that every cell in his body was focused on her.

She savored the feeling of being the center of his complete attention, crying out each word.

“Your ‘love’ knelt before His Majesty the King and pleaded! Begged him to recognize Count Cesare as his son!”

It was an addendum marked ‘unconfirmed information’ in a report she had heard from her father, but Lariesa cared nothing for its authenticity.

No, she would *make* it the truth. As long as Alfonso believed it, it would become a truth stronger than truth itself.

“And that’s not all! Ariadne de Mare shared the first dance with Cesare de Carlo at the ball celebrating his recognition!”

The first dance.

When Alfonso had danced the first dance with Lariesa at the spring royal ball, Ariadne had been terribly disappointed, though she hadn't shown it.

So Alfonso knew just how much meaning Ariadne placed on the ‘first dance’ of a ball.

His hands began to tremble minutely.

Lariesa drove in the final nail.

“Right now, San Carlo is rife with rumors that Ariadne de Mare will be Cesare de Carlo’s fiancée!”

It didn’t matter if it was true or not.

“Why do you cling to those who have betrayed you? The only one you have left is me, Lariesa!”

She pulled a sheet of parchment from her bodice. It was something she always carried with her.

“I can save you!”

Lariesa thrust the paper in front of Alfonso’s face.

“Sign it.”

Through his blurred vision, Alfonso could make out some of the words written on the document.

“…Contract.”

“It’s a marriage contract.”

The parchment stated that ‘Alfonso de Carlo, Prince of Etruscan and firstborn son of Leo III, and Lariesa de Valois, firstborn daughter of Grand Duke Eudes of Valois, shall be wed, with the dowry and bride price to be determined by mutual agreement at a later date.’

“The title is a marriage contract, but in reality, it’s your lifeline. Your only one.”

She dipped the pen in ink, filled in her name, and then added her signature.

“There, I am now in the same boat as you.”

She looked at the motionless Alfonso with moist eyes and pleaded.

“This isn’t easy for me either. My father will only act if I have this marriage contract with you!”

Lariesa dipped the quill in ink again and offered it to Alfonso. But he still did not respond.

The silence stretched on, and the ink on the tip of the quill began to dry.

Just as the ink started to congeal, Alfonso spoke.

“…Your father is just an excuse, is he not, Grand Duchess of Valois? Do you not simply wish to have me?”

Lariesa’s face flushed red as she changed the subject. She wasn’t brazen enough to deny it outright.

“…Unless you marry me, my father won’t confront His Majesty the King for you. That’s why.”

“And have you reached an agreement with Grand Duke Eudes?”

Alfonso’s eyes finally blinked, slowly. His golden lashes fluttered like a butterfly’s wings.

The young prince was now like a butterfly emerged from its chrysalis.

Words and actions he never would have displayed before now came forth.

“Lariesa de Valois. I do not know you well, but I know this much. You haven’t convinced your father. You planned to have me sign this marriage contract first, and only then figure out how to persuade him.”

She was right. Lariesa bit her lip.

“Even if I sign this marriage contract, will your father really get me out of here safely?”

“I’ll make him, somehow! Somehow…!”

Whether by pleading with her father in tears or threatening her mother with her own life, she would make it happen.

In her short life, Lariesa had never wanted anything as intensely as this.

Her jealousy of her sister Suzanne, her hatred for Princess Auguste, the boredom and lethargy that filled her days—all of it was nothing compared to this moment, now that she was on the verge of having Alfonso de Carlo in her grasp.

Besides Alfonso, nothing else in the world held any meaning for Lariesa.

Prince Alfonso picked up the quill.

“Grand Duchess Lariesa. I wish to leave this place. But I will not go to the Grand Duke of Valois’s residence.”

“Then to the Valois duchy…!”

“I will not go anywhere the King of Gallico’s hand can reach.”

The white feather in Alfonso’s hand trembled in the autumn breeze.

Lariesa’s throat was parched. If only that quill would sign this paper…!

“I will cross the border and leave. The day you can get me out of the country without your father’s help, I will sign this document.”

Alfonso set the quill down on the table with a soft click.

Then he took the parchment in both hands, as if to rip it in two.

“Wait!”

Lariesa stopped him.

“…You can leave the Kingdom of Gallico even without my father’s help. Tonight. The opportunity is tonight only.”

The prince’s gray-blue eyes swept over the grand duchess’s pale skin. It was a look that demanded an answer.

“The Duke of Yuldenberg… he’s leaving the palace early tomorrow morning. He received his funds, so he says he’s now marching to Isacre.”

The Duke of Yuldenberg had come to Montpellier Palace with some 300 of his knights and 1,000 infantrymen.

He planned to rendezvous with the rest of his forces stationed in the port city of Lamiens, not far from the capital, and depart for Isacre with a fleet of caravels and cogs.

“The Palais de Montpellier is a labyrinth and a fortress in itself, and the capital is an extension of the palace. If you try to flee alone, you’ll never leave the city. We’ll use the chaos of the Duke of Yuldenberg’s army departing to get you out.”

What Lariesa had in mind was for Alfonso to escape Montpellier Palace alone, using the military commotion as cover.

But Alfonso’s vision was different.

“Then,”

Alfonso demanded.

“You will come here at four o’clock this morning and get us out somehow. It’s not enough for me to leave alone; my knights must leave with me.”

“B-But…”

Lariesa, who had planned to sneak Alfonso out disguised as a woman, was at a loss for words.

She didn't have the means to get a dozen able-bodied knights out of Montpellier Palace.

Prince Alfonso looked at Grand Duchess Lariesa with cold eyes.

“If you lack the cunning to bribe people or the ability to command your own…”

It was a frigid gaze, devoid of even an ounce of affection.

“Set fire to the palace with your own hands. You said you wanted me.”

Prince Alfonso pushed the parchment document toward Grand Duchess Lariesa.

“I will sign this at dawn today, if we meet again.”

Lariesa accepted the marriage contract, its groom’s signature line empty, as if receiving a holy relic.

“If you fail, don’t even think of seeing me again.”